Tag Archives: SOTA

Activation Alert: Pemigewasset Loop

I’ll be backpacking the Pemi Loop in New Hampshire this weekend, and plan to activate 4 summits.  Times listed below are approximate depending on hiking speeds and conditions.  I will be running 10 watts SSB with my KX3 and LNR 10/20/40 EFHW trail friendly antenna.

Pemi_Loop

Saturday 9/21/2013

19:00 W1/HA-092 Owl’s Head Mountain (10 pts)

Monday 9/23/2013

13:00 W1/HA-022 South Twin Mountain (10 pts)

15:30 W1/HA-095 Mt Garfield (10 pts)

19:00 W1/HA-022 Mt Lafayette (10 pts)

 

If I’m feeling really ambitious, I may detour on Sunday the 22nd and pick up W1/HA-228, Pt 3051 (4 pts).  I will probably get on the air Sunday night from my campsite.

 

Hope to hear lots of stations on the air!

 

Bryan N0BCB

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W6/NC-030 Mount St Helena

For the 2013 NASOTA weekend, I decided to try an unactivated summit near wine country, since we were already vacationing here for the in-laws 70th birthday.  Mt St Helena is accessible by trail or fire road.  There was a mountain bike in the garage of our rental house so I decided to also do my first bicycle SOTA!  The bike was too small for me and needed some minor maintenance, but it did get me to the summit and back safely.

The first mile and a half is on a small trail, and is a difficult ride.  It’s possible to start directly onto the dirt access road, but you’ll have more elevation gain and distance.  I was able to ride most of the trail through here, with a few lifts over large rock areas.
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Once you pop out onto the dirt road, it’s just plain climbing.  The corners have some loose volcanic dust/sand, so be careful on those.

As I neared the summit, I got to witness a very cool dirt devil

 
The summit, and 2 nearby, are covered with antenna farms. I set up directly next to a microwave repeater, and my 2m radio was popping every 30s or so. I decided 2m was way to obnoxious to listen to, so I shut that radio off and never tried the band from there. I was able to make a couple of 20m contacts, but I had S9 noise on my KX3 and gave up pretty quickly. I was following other activators on SOTAgoat, and couldn’t hear anybody on 20m. 40m had much lower noise, and I managed a couple of contacts there. I had my first every 17m contact with KJ6NHF on W7N/WC-001.

Map/track here:

And elevation profile showing over 2000′ of gain in 5 miles:

And finally, the summit log:

The rest of the photos can be seen at: photos.mainelife.net

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W0/WE-001 Castle Peak 14er 8/4/2013

This year I decided to combine the Colorado 14er Event with Summits on the Air for a weekend of fun in the Colorado High Country!  Our hike up Castle on Sunday, August 4th was the final day of a 5-day camping/hiking trip starting in Fort Collins.  We spent Saturday night at site #2 along the road up to Castle Peak, and got a 5am start on the trail.  Since we were driving all the way to just below the Pearl Pass Rd split, we got to sleep in a little.
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The trail to the summit follows an old mining road all the way to ~ 12,800′, where it becomes a scramble up a boulder field.  We decided to take a harder route up the summit, which goes to the extreme left when viewing the summit from the 12,800′ area.  This was probably a class III scramble, and was very difficult at times.  For the route down, we came down the “normal” route.  You can see the road we hiked in the background:

About 45 minutes from the summit, I began hearing 14er stations on 146.52 and 147.42.  I talked with Alan NM5S and told him we’d be on the summit soon.  I’ve started using a Smiley 2m 1/2 wave antenna for summit activations, and have found that it works really well.  I routinely make contacts to 100 miles with this antenna, and the biggest benefit over the Arrow Yagi which I also use is that it’s available during the hike up.

Once on the summit, I worked a decent pile of guys, both on 2m to other 14er summits, and on 20m-ssb for SOTA.  Here’s my log from the day:
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The remaining pictures from Castle Peak can be seen at W0/WE-001 Castle

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